


Before We Go

by thereyoflight



Category: Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bisexual Michelle Jones, Childhood Friends, College, Established Relationship, F/M, Falling In Love, Friends to Lovers, Idiots in Love, Inspired by Fanart, Internal Conflict, Kissing, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Moving, Nervousness, Not Actually Unrequited Love, One Shot, Post-Spider-Man: Homecoming, Road Trips, Soft Peter Parker, Spideychelle Week 2020, Stargazing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-23
Updated: 2020-06-23
Packaged: 2021-03-04 04:28:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,547
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24867604
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thereyoflight/pseuds/thereyoflight
Summary: Peter Parker and Michelle Jones spend their final summer before college on a road trip across the east coast. On their final night, one of them confesses under the stars.
Relationships: Michelle Jones & Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, petermj - Relationship, spideychelle - Relationship
Comments: 16
Kudos: 59
Collections: Spideychelle Week 2020





	Before We Go

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Spideychelle Week! My take on Day One: Road Trip with some inspiration provided along the way.
> 
> This one-shot is inspired directly by artwork by @kittenkatsart on Tumblr, shown below. Provided is a link to the original post, as well as a link to the artist's account where the rest of their incredible art can be found:  
> [ Original Post](https://kittenkatsart.tumblr.com/post/621546351158788096/day-1-road-trip-au)  
> [ KittenKatsArt's Account](https://kittenkatsart.tumblr.com/)

` `

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Peter asked.

Michelle nodded as she looked up at the stars above them. She sat on the top of the car with her legs crossed underneath her. She felt the car shift beneath her as Peter leaned his body against the side of the car, his head achingly close to where her hands lay on her lap. She resisted the urge to run her hands through his hair.

“It is,” she replied.

Even with such a miracle of beauty above them, Michelle could barely focus on it. She was more struck by Peter, and how his lovely face would contract in confusion when she finally told him the truth. Today would be the day, and Michelle couldn’t be any more afraid.

It was the final day of Peter and Michelle’s road trip across the east coast, and they’d be returning to New York in a couple of hours. They’d embarked on the journey the day after their high school graduation, and it would be over just three short weeks before they would leave for college on opposite sides of the country. It was the last chance Michelle had to entirely, truly, come clean.

Michelle pushed the thoughts away; she wanted to be in this moment with Peter one last time, before everything changed.

“I had a lot of fun on this trip,” Peter said. “It was… nice.”

Michelle couldn’t disagree, even though the road trip did have its cons. Sleeping in Peter’s old, battered car when they couldn’t find a place to sleep was far from comfortable, especially with the thin cushioning it had. The coffee they drank was always terrible, but they needed it too much to pass it up. The bathrooms they had to resort to were never as clean as they should be, but they never had much of a choice.

It was uncomfortable, sure, and sometimes it bordered on downright terrifying.

There was the one time they rock climbed in Kentucky, and Peter assured Michelle that the old climbing ropes Ben had once used would be fine. They, in fact, were not fine. A rope had snapped, and Peter had to use his webs to keep her from falling to her death. And the other time where they’d nearly crashed into a ditch in the dark of the night in North Carolina because Michelle was half-asleep at the wheel. Or, even worse, when they stopped at a sketchy motel in Florida and were gone within the hour because they were sure it was haunted.

But, of course, the worst of it all was being in such close quarters with your childhood best friend that you just so happened to be in love with. The one you seemed to somehow fall more in love with everyday because, apparently, that’s just what road trips did. It made the love become an outpouring, one you couldn’t seem to stop, and it made you see all the things you never noticed about someone and make you realize they’re just that much more special.

And there were also the pros, which, Michelle admitted, were mostly in the little things of the trip. She loved getting breakfast with Peter at diners across the coast, no matter how terrible or decent the food was, simply because she got to sit and talk to him like nothing was ever going to change between them. She loved blasting music and singing and dancing with Peter for hours on end through mostly empty highways. She loved the long hikes through forests and trails that left them in a beautiful silence. She loved telling ghost stories underneath a flashlight when they camped in a tent under a full moon. She loved reading to him, from whatever book she was in the middle of at the time, when they grew tired of music. Most of all, she loved reminiscing their old, childhood memories, like the time she pushed him off his own treehouse and got his arm broken, which he swears was intentional but she promises it was accidental.

She loved all the things that made their friendship what it was, and she was terrified of losing it.

There was a lump in her throat, and Michelle was suddenly unsure if she’d be able to go through with her confession. She had gone over all the words in her head for months, rehearsing the perfect things to say, but from one moment to the next, her mind had gone blank. Could she live with herself if she decided not to tell him? Or would it hurt her even more if she didn’t?

She had been so sure before, that it was the right thing to do before they parted ways, but now she was conflicted. She didn’t want to ruin what she and Peter had, what they’d developed over the years. This incredible friendship and oneness that had been with them since they’d first met at only six years old. Did she truly want to risk twelve years of friendship over unrequited love?

_Damn you, Parker,_ she thought as she looked down at him. _Damn you for making me love you so much._

“Me too,” Michelle managed to choke out. “It was perfect.”

She forced her eyes back to the night sky, as if it would somehow give her an answer as to what she should do. The sky only gazed back at her as it always had, and Michelle felt so small compared to the vastness of the universe she’d somehow managed to find Peter in. The question turned over in her head, and Michelle leaned toward the inevitable.

Michelle curled her hand gently along Peter’s neck. She watched, mesmerized, as his eyes fluttered closed and he leaned back into her touch. He hummed in encouragement, and she allowed her fingertips to tangle in his soft hair. Something about it felt intimate in a way she’d never experienced with him, and it sent shivers up her spine.

Michelle still remembered what it was like to meet him on the first day of first grade, how he had smiled brightly at her and offered her animal crackers, of all things. Everything changed after that, and their worlds shifted to revolve around each other. They were inseparable, making up fantasy worlds to get lost in where Peter always ended up being the lost princess and Michelle always ended up being the knight in shining armor.

And it was like that for years until everything changed in grade eight, when Peter changed. Their friendship slowed to a crawl, and eventually, they stopped talking. Michelle didn’t find out the truth until sophomore year when he accidentally crawled into her apartment and not his, which was easy to confuse when they were right next to each other. Luckily, Peter had reached her before she could start screaming bloody murder about the spandex man on her ceiling.

That had been an interesting night, to say the least.

“Are you tired?” she whispered.

He smiled in the moonlight, and her breath nearly caught at how effortlessly beautiful he looked. “Aren’t you?” he asked.

Michelle removed her hand from his head, despite his whine in response. “I’m wide awake,” she said, and the fast pace of her heart could prove it.

Peter turned toward her, stacking his forearms on top of the car and resting his chin atop them. He looked up at her. “Is something wrong?” he asked.

“No,” she said.

Peter looked at her in a way that she knew he wasn’t convinced, and she knew he wouldn’t take that as an answer. Michelle chewed at her lip and tore her eyes from his. “I just keep thinking about everything I’m leaving behind next month, you know?” she said. “Going away for college and all… it sort of feels like my entire life is being pulled out from under me.”

_Like you’re being pulled out from under me,_ she didn’t add.

“I… I actually wanted to talk to you about that,” Peter said. “Michelle.”

He never called her by her first name, so the choice to use it was alarming. The serious tone in his voice scared her, so she did what she did best. “Peter,” Michelle teased, her voice light with amusement.

Peter didn’t seem to notice or, if he did, he chose to ignore it. “I… I know that we’re going to college next month, and we’re both moving away, and so much is going to change between us…” he said. “But… I really don’t want to lose this.”

“This?” Michelle asked.

Peter sighed, climbing onto the car to sit beside her, yet he still wouldn’t meet her eyes. “Us,” he replied. “You.”

Guilt crept down her body like a current, and she couldn’t breathe.She had all this time to consider it, and there were moments where she’d almost just blurted it out, but she always held back. She knew, then, that she could never tell him the truth.

“I guess… I guess I just want to say something,” Peter continued. “It’s just that we’ve been friends for such a long time. We practically grew up together, and I don’t want to lose what we’ve got here. Especially after this year. You’ve meant so much to me for such a long time, and when my parents… when Ben… I didn’t think I’d ever be happy again. And you… God, you, Michelle… you always, _always_ , managed to make me smile in the worst times…”

Michelle felt tears burning in her eyes. She still remembered those days as if they were yesterday. The shift in his shoulders and the pain in his eyes after his parents’ death tore her apart, and she’d done everything in her power to make him laugh. He’d looked so void of any joy at all that she was sure every attempt would fail, but surprisingly, he had actually laughed with her. After Ben, it was so much worse, but she never gave up on him.

She knew he’d do the same for her.

“You were my hero in those times,” he continued. “You kept me going through all these terrible things that happened to me. And ever since then, I vowed to be your hero, too, no matter how long it took.”

“I don’t think you thought it would be literal, did you?” she asked.

Peter stifled a laugh and shook his head. “Come on, you know what I mean.”

She smiled at him and stayed silent. She wanted to give him more than enough room to say what he needed to. He shut his eyes for a moment, and from all the years they’d known each other, Michelle knew he was on the cusp of saying something that was difficult for him to admit.

“I guess what I’m trying to say is that…” He took a breath. “... I love you, and not like a friend. And I really don’t want to end this trip without you knowing that, even if it ruins everything. I’ve loved you from the start, and I’m so stupid to have not seen it sooner.”

Michelle was stunned. She hadn’t expected anything like this from him, and she didn’t know how to react. He looked up at her then with his warm eyes that she knew so well, and she was frozen in place. She had come here to confess, and the confession was turned on her. _Classic Peter Parker move,_ she thought.

It was silent for a moment, and it was deafening. They had reached a line in their friendship, an unspoken one, and she knew that neither of them really knew what to do since it was out in the open. She wasn’t sure how long they sat there in silence, Peter’s words ringing through her mind like a siren.

“And I’m sorry,” Peter continued. “I’m sorry if this ruins everything, and I’m sorry—.”

“Peter, I like you, too,” Michelle said quickly, and he turned to her in surprise. “... I love you, too.”

Before she could say anything, Peter pressed his lips against hers. Michelle’s hand came up in surprise, but the kiss only seemed to relax her. The gentleness in his kiss reminds her of the soft touch of sunlight, of warmth found in the sharp coldness of the day. Slowly, she rested her hand against his neck and kissed him back. She hadn’t thought kissing Peter would feel so natural, but it was as easy as breathing.

She pulled away. “I feel so stupid…” she said. “All this time, I’ve felt this way, and I thought you didn’t.”

“Me too,” Peter said quietly. “I thought you liked Susan Yang.”

“I mean, yeah, I had a crush on her,” Michelle admitted. “But… it was nothing compared to how I felt about you. I just wish I had told you sooner. We’re going off to college now, and… we could’ve had so much time.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Peter assured, and by the look in his eyes alone, she believed him. “We’ll figure it out together. We always do.”

“By the way,” she added, “you totally ruined my plan.”

Peter looked at her, puzzled. “Your plan?”

Michelle nodded. “Yeah, my grand plan of confessing to you tonight,” she said, “but you beat me to it.”

He rolled his eyes. “Your plan sucked anyway.”

“What?” she exclaimed. “You did it!”

“That doesn’t count because it’s me,” he shot back playfully. “I mean, I’m Spider-Man—.”

She punched his arm. “Shut up, loser.”

“You know I’m right!” he fired back.

“You’re not,” she said, and before he could argue his point further, she kissed him again. His lips were soft against hers, and she wished to be able to live in the moment forever. She wanted to capture the time they were in and live in it for eternity. She knew she would trade anything for it, just to be there with Peter forever, with his lips pressed against hers and the whisper of her name ghosting past his lips. With the touch of his fingertips grazing her cheek with such gentleness that for a moment, it’s as if she were as fragile as art, and perhaps she was. With the comforting heat of his body pooling into her own, reminding her that he’s all the safety and comfort she’d ever need. Without the fear of the future.

Peter pulled away, his forehead pressed against hers and his hand cupping her cheek. “You’re still scared, aren’t you?”

Michelle lets out a breath and wraps her hand around his wrist. “Of course I am.”

“Don’t be,” he whispered. “We’re going to be okay. We have everything we need.”

Michelle couldn’t say he was wrong. They had endured so much together, through all the hardships of their childhood and adolescence, through life-threatening and not-so-dangerous circumstances alike. Time and time again, they had always found their way back to each other or through whatever stood in their way.

College paled in comparison with everything else they had faced.

Michelle took hold of his hand with her opposite hand, and she felt the light caress of his thumb against her skin. She closed her eyes. “Yeah,” she whispered with assurance. “We’re going to be just fine.”

And when Peter pulled her in for another kiss, she didn’t know any other truth.


End file.
